Tag Archives: Dr. Sketchy’s

These drawings are from a Dr. Sketchy’s in NYC on Sunday, November 27th, 2011. Apparently I didn’t write down the model’s name, which is annoying. I think it was at the Bowery Poetry Club, which has since closed.

I’m currently doing some digital spring cleaning—sprucing up web pages, twitter accounts, and the like, and realized I hadn’t put up any sketches in bit. I’ve got a ton, so I’ll split them up into a few posts.

This first set is from a Dr. Sketchy’s DC session Alexis and I attended back on December 16th, 2012. The model was a burlesque performer named Cherie Sweetbottom who I hadn’t met before. This was the last Dr. Sketchy’s DC session at the Red Palace (a burlesque and rock bar) which was in the process of being shut down and dismantled around us while we drew. The director of the DC branch, Reverend Valentine, is a good friend of ours and was amazing as always, better than we would have been if we were given no warning our venue was shutting down. The bar’s employees, on the other hand, were obviously still in shock and were drinking their sorrows away as part of the grieving process. Thankfully the DC branch has since moved on to greener pastures.

Last month, Alexis and I rode down with Maria Bella of Gilded Lily Burlesque to the Asheville Burlesque & Sideshow Festival. Maria, while she was there, posed for the local branch of Dr. Sketchy’s.

These are the sketches I did, though I’ve obviously toyed with them in Photoshop. I’m still trying to find a “look” involving pencil sketches that will work in a flyer. The third one is me fooling around with what that might look like. I think it *kind of* works, but it’s not there yet.

You can also see the usual nightly progression I go through – abstract, cartoonesque drawings slowly progressing to an attempt at an actual likeness. None of them quite got there, but I think one or two got close. (Particularly the early sketches of the evening.)

Back in January, Alexis and I visited the Dr. Sketchy’s Boston branch who’s model that session was Persephone’s Playhouse. The theme was rope bondage which was pretty ambitious considering the number of ropes and knots that had to be tied between poses. It worked out pretty well and it looks like they run a pretty neat branch.

Initially, Alexis and I founded Dr. Sketchy’s Baltimore because we wanted to draw at it. We’d attended a session or two in NYC, got fired up about it, and then proceeded to sit around for a year waiting for someone to start one in Baltimore. Eventually we gave up and founded it ourselves with the naive thought, “Well, we’ll just set up some chairs, collect money at the door, and then get to sit down and draw with everyone else.”

Little did we know.

Don’t get me wrong, we wouldn’t give up running Dr. Sketchy’s for the world, but of the many great, interesting things that have come about because of it, drawing wasn’t one of them.

So we hit the local art college MICA’s and the local art co-op Creative Alliance’s life-drawing sessions for that missing bit.

This particular model, in the above sketch, walked in to the MICA session, propped up a mountain of pillows and laid down—blocking 1/2 to 3/4 of the room from seeing anything but the upper tip of her elbow. She was the long-pose model, which meant she would be holding that pose for the entire 3 hours.

One of the artists said, “Umm, excuse me, but if you sit like that, most of the room can’t see you.”

She responded, “Tough. That’s how it works, you’ll just have to live with it.” The artist started to respond but she closed here eyes, effectively blocking him out.

She’d actually come by Dr. Sketchy’s a few months earlier wanting to model—when we told her we were too busy trying to start the session (basically running around in frantic “pull-our-hair-out” mode doing the million little things that always need to be done), that she should go read the “Interested in being a model?” page on our website and follow the submission directions, she responded that she already had. (The page specifically says don’t come to Dr. Sketchy’s and try to talk to us about modeling when the session is about to start. We’re just too busy.) She got mad that we couldn’t give her a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the spot and left.

Oh, I should plug the next Dr. Sketchy’s Baltimore before I go. Next Dr. Sketchy’s is April 11th with the lovely calendar girls of Team Atomic with all the proceeds going to the Ride for the Feast charity. Drawing, adult beverages, AND doing good deeds. Honestly, what more could you want?

That one kind of reminds me of a fellow I knew back in high school and what he might look like in another decade or two. Maybe. If he’s eating right or something. I don’t know.

This lady was a sign language interpreter at a recent section meeting—it actually looks nothing like her. Three minutes into the drawing someone as tall as a tree sat in front of me. I pretty much had to make up (badly) 75% of the drawing.

One of the speakers at said section meeting. He had a Scottish accent and was a lot more lively than this serene pose indicates.

Last week while dropping off Dr. Sketchy’s Baltimore flyers at the Windup Space, I decided to stick around and see the show being set up. Unfortunately, the show was 2 hours away and my phone was dead, so I ended up doodling Russell behind the bar.

The sketch is horrible, but I like the look of it—I might try it again tomorrow night while folks are drawing Paco.

Lastly, an unfinished doodle I did after the Russell doodle—it was cut off by the start of the show.

By the way, if you want to get some cheap life drawing in, and you’re around Baltimore, the next Dr. Sketchy’s is tomorrow night, at the Windup Space with Paco Fish. Doors at 6, start at 7! Whatever you got going on, this is better. Probably. I mean, if it’s your birthday and everyone’s giving you presents, fine. Otherwise, this is better.

What is this?

Sketches is a stack of random sketches from the backs of napkins, life-drawing classes (often Dr. Sketchy's), work meetings, airport terminals, and anywhere else I happen to be. Sometimes, though not often, more labored work might make an appearance.